Samuel Johnson

Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen.

Never speak of a man in his own presence. It is always indelicate and may be offensive .

Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.

We are convinced that happiness is never to be found and each believes it possessed by others to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.

It is common to overlook what is near by keeping the eye fixed on something remote.

To improve the golden moment of opportunity and catch the good that is within our reach is the great art of life.

Present opportunities are neglected and attainable good is slighted by minds busied in extensive ranges and intent upon future advantages.

An Italian philosopher said that "time was his estate" an estate indeed which will produce nothing without cultivation but will always abundantly repay the labors of industry and generally satisfy the most extensive desires if no part of it be suffered to lie in waste by negligence to be overrun with noxious plants or laid out for show rather than for use.

Had I learned to fiddle I should have done nothing else.

He left the name at which the world grew pale To point a moral or adorn a tale.

The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write: a man will turn over half a library to make one book.

The true strong and sound mind is the mind that can embrace equally great things and small.

As the faculty of writing has chiefly been a masculine endowment the reproach of making the world miserable has always been thrown upon the women.

The true art of memory is the art of attention.

Marriages would in general be as happy and often more so if they were all made by the Lord Chancellor.

Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife he is always proud of himself as the source of it.

Marriage has many pains but celibacy has no pleasures.

It is unjust to claim the privileges of age and retain the playthings of childhood.